posted Aug 24th, 2005 - A lousy weather forecast held down attendance, and a stubborn layer of low clouds delayed the start of our fourth meet of the 2005 season last Saturday at Skydive Chicago. However, no one could have foreseen just how much the action would heat up once the meet finally got rolling.

In addition to the "meet within a meet" already in place due to MWSL Meet 4 doubling as the first six rounds of the NSL Playoffs 2005, thanks to Rebeca Perren at Performance Designs, the Midwest Skydiving League was also able to hold a "PD Challenge" where each team competed against its own score from the previous meet, with the winning team taking home a set of PD T-shirts in addition to the other PD goodies distributed to all the competitors.

The teams responded to the challenge with great results. Every team improved the performance compared to the previous meet. In fact, all teams had their best meets ever in their current competition classes. The competition for the first first in the PD Challenge was therefore very keen.

New team records everywhere

When the dust settled after six rounds, the Chicago Sirens had improved 22% over the team's scores of the last MWSL meet. However, CSC Steel Breeze bested their previous scores by a dramatic 30% increase. But even that wasn't enough to win at this meet. 4-Play, a team made up exclusively of first time competitors for the 2005 season (Neill Gresham, Laurent Beaudouin, Dina Kafenshtok, Brian Stupec, Andy Metcalfe - video) scored amazing 31% better than at MWSL Meet 3 and took home the PD T-shirts. Along the way, 4-Play set a new team record by scoring an 8-pointer in round two. However, this team record turned out to be very short lived as 4 Play promptly went up for round three and scored 11 points.

MWSL A Class battle

As has been the case all season, the primary competition was in the A Class where some of the NSL's best teams compete in the Midwest Skydiving League. Despite their breakthrough performance documented above, 4-Play had to settle for fourth place with a total of 44 points. Nite Hooker and the Pimps had a strong meet with 53 points, including a 13-pointer in round five, and placed third.

The Sirens who, as mentioned above, competed closely for the PD Challenge, posted a very impressive total of 61 points, including a team record 14-pointer in round three. However, the battle for the first place in the A Class would go to the Skydive Chicago Furies.

Coming back strong after missing MWSL Meet 3, the all-female team (Sarah Lawrence, Gosia Cienkosz, Lisa DeSimone, Shannon Sweet, Charles Lane - video) put on a clinic, scoring a team record 15-pointer in round three and finishing with a total of 69 points, one of the highest meet scores in the history of the Midwest Skydiving League.

Steel Breeze and Chasing Amy in the hunt for PD awards

In the AAA Class, CSC Steel Breeze (Rich Madsen, Brian Darnell, Carolyn Smith, John Pickert, Kevin Nafztger-v) got off to a rocky start, but quickly recovered and proceeded to knock out five solid rounds in a row, finishing with a total of 42 points. As mentioned earlier, that performance brought the team to within one point of winning the PD Challenge, having added 1.5 points to the previous Steel Breeze meet average.

Chasing Amy remained the lone entry in the Rookie Class. The team's performance included a strong round four where Chasing Amy missed a 5-point score by less than 0.5 seconds. The total score of five points would have been only one point shy of Chasing Amy's score for the team's entire first competition this year. Like all MWSL teams, Chasing Amy had the best meet ever, finishing with a total of 13 points.

Furies set new MWSL standards

Three teams, the SDC Furies, Chicago Sirens and the Pimps returned Sunday morning to compete in the final rounds of the NSL Playoffs 2005. Scoring fell off a little from Saturday's record setting pace, but not much. The Pimps finished with 82 points for the full 10-round meet. The Sirens wound up missing the "magic" 10-point average barrier by mere two points and finished with a 9.8 meet average.

The Furies scored a total of 106 points to win the local A Class competition. The 10.6 meet average is also the highest A Class scoring of the entire 2005 season. The Furies are in second position of the A Class leaderboard after three meets. However, the Chicago team is the actual top team in this class since Air Force Quad attended only one meet and is not eligible for NSL awards. As far as the records show, this is the first time that an MWSL A Class team has recorded a 10-point average at a 10-round competition, a truly impressive accomplishment.

Skydive Chicago was once again a great host for the Midwest Skydiving League. In particular, despite weather holds lasting until about 1:00 pm, MWSL Director Alan Butt was able to get all six scheduled rounds completed before sunset. This allowed the teams that could not compete on Sunday the opportunity to complete the MWSL meet.

Alan Butt sent MWSL thanks to Melissa, Rook, Katie, Tracy, Ada and the rest of the SDC staff. He looks forward to coming back to Skydive Chicago in 2006. He also thanked the MWSL coaches, Lem Castro and Matt Mikos, for their contributions to this record setting weekend. Special thanks went to Rebeca Perren and Performance Designs for sending the prizes and other goodies for the PD Challenge.

Alan Butt added that it was a truly special meet: "It is always a great feeling to give your best in a competition, and we saw plenty of that at this meet. There has never been an MWSL scoreboard like the one posted this weekend. A lot of training, intensity and dedication went into producing the jumps that took place, and it was very exciting to be a part of it. Best of luck to the teams going to Perris for the USPA Nationals."

MWSL Director Alan Butt hopes to see everyone back on September 17th at Chicagoland Skydiving Center for the season finale of the Midwest Skydiving League.